Preparing to teach and learn in teams

GLADSTONE — Yesterday, teachers and students in the Gladstone Area Schools district began to get into the rhythm that will become their daily routine for about the next nine months.

The Daily Press briefly visited Estacia (“Tasi”) Martinez’s fourth-grade classroom, where students were receiving basic assignments and assembling kits of materials that they will use for the 2026 to 2027 school year.

The classroom at James T. Jones Elementary School is one that is utilizing a team-based model. During the course of the day, children will be in groups attended to by multiple teachers. Team-based teaching is designed to better serve students’ learning as well as reduce teacher burnout, Next Education Workforce reports, and trials over the last seven years have shown positive results.

Next Education Workforce is an initiative through Arizona State University (ASU) that has partnered with the Michigan Educator Workforce Initiative (MEWI) to provide grants that enable team-based staffing models within schools in the Great Lakes State.

“Last year, we piloted the teaming model for half of the school day and saw incredible results, both academically and emotionally, for our students,” said Martinez. “The success of that pilot has us excited to expand teaming throughout the entire school day this year.”

An article from ASU released in January of this year explained, “schools are increasingly recognizing that the conventional one-teacher, one-classroom model cannot meet the needs of all students or educators. …Teachers on teams report greater satisfaction, stronger collaboration and more sustainable careers — a valuable benefit since finding and keeping teachers has been difficult in recent years. “Team-based staffing is reshaping the teaching experience, from how teachers plan and instruct to how they grow professionally and balance work with life,” the article continued.

Select districts piloted the team-teaching model. While ASU has launched the program in 16 states over the last seven years, Michigan’s first two districts to test the structure did so in 2024.

Last year, 15 Michigan school districts tried team-teaching; another 16 schools are on board for 2026 to 2027, Chalkbeat reported.

However, the practice isn’t entirely new. One formula for team-based learning was developed by Larry Michaelsen in 1979 for the University of Oklahoma, and similar models were practiced in the ’60s. Early work and the founding of the Team-Based Learning Collaborative (TBLC) was supported by the a grant from the U.S. Department of Education in 2001.

The superintendent of a school district in Jackson County that tried the ASU model told Bridge Michigan that utilizing a team format was good for both students and educators.

"It's incredibly difficult to think that you may be the only person that is wrapping around a kid. But with team teaching and shared planning time and very intentional conversations around where students are at and what they need, you now have a model where the teachers are sharing that burden,” Concord Superintendent Rebecca Hutchinson was reported as saying in a 2025 Bridge article. “There's more people brainstorming about how to help students become successful.”

For fourth-graders in Gladstone, four out of five subjects — with the exception of project-based learning — will be conducted in the team style this year. At Jones Elementary, Martinez is on a teaching team with Rebekka Erickson, Teresa Sjogren and LaLacia Langenfeld. 

“While there is always excitement that comes with welcoming a new group of students, this year brings an extra sense of enthusiasm as we launch a full day of teaming,” said Martinez.

Principal Holly Howes noted the necessity to start gradually. Third-graders in Gladstone will be taking one class in a team format — only math, with two teachers. By fifth grade, all the teachers work as a team anyway, Howes said.

Monday was the first day for Gladstone Area Schools, but each district follows its own schedule. Mid Peninsula starts today, for example, and students in the Escanaba Area Public School District will begin their semester on Wednesday.